Bernice Rubens was the first woman to be awarded the Booker Prize - and is the only Welsh winner of the prestigious literary prize back in 1970 - and her achievements have finally been recognised with the unveiling of a plaque at her family home.
Rubens, who died in 2004, worked as a teacher and a documentary maker before going on to publish more than 20 novels, the main themes of which were family life and Jewishness.
Her Booker win came for the novel The Elected Member, which examined the struggles of a Jewish family in London’s East End.
The unveiling of the plaque on her family home in the Roath area of Cardiff in July 2024 - twenty years after her death - was part of the Purple Plaques scheme. Purple Plaques was launched on International Women’s Day in 2017 by a group of volunteers with the aim of improving the recognition of women’s contribution to Welsh life.
The event was attended by family members, scholars and members of the literary world - including Cai Parry-Jones, who featured Rubens in his book The Jews of Wales: A History. He has noted the disparity in how she has been remembered compared with the poet Dannie Abse, who was also born into a Welsh Jewish family and was honoured with a plaque placed on his house in Roath, just a year after his death.
Bernice Rubens was born in Cardiff, the third of four children of Eli and Dorothy. Eli was a Lithuanian Jew who fled Latvia carrying two violins at the age of 16 hoping to start a life in New York. After being conned by a ticket tout in Germany, he never reached the US, but made his home in Cardiff.
In a speech to unveil the plaque, Cai Parry-Jones said: "As the first woman and only Welsh person to date to win the Booker Prize, her work represents a significant milestone for both women’s and Wales’s achievements in prestigious English literary awards. This accomplishment alone makes a compelling case for a more widespread recognition, inspiring the next generation of schoolchildren in Wales and Welsh writers, regardless of their gender and background, to pursue and attain their literary aspirations.
"The fact that she published her first novel at the age of 37 and went on to publish 26 books up until her death at 81 in 2004, averaging almost one every 18 months, is not only impressive, but proves it is never too late to start writing. But Bernice never claimed that writing was her obsession, and there is a quote from her that I always find especially encouraging whenever I write: ‘I don’t love writing. But I love having written.’
Eryl Powell, the current owner of the family’s former home in Penylan, proposed the Purple Plaque and said: “I’m delighted that Purple Plaque Wales has supported my application to celebrate the exceptional Bernice Rubens as a notable Welsh woman. I hope that the plaque will serve as a reminder of the important cultural and social contribution that Bernice, daughter of a Jewish refugee, made to Wales and to literature.”
Family member Janet Ruben said: “The Rubens family are delighted that Bernice Rubens is being honoured in this way by the purple plaque project. Bernice spent her formative years growing up as a girl in Cardiff and these experiences inspired many of her works, one of which “The Elected Member” went on to win the Booker Prize. She was the first woman to win the Booker Prize, was shortlisted again with “A Five Year Sentence” and was also a judge on one of the prize panels.
“We are thrilled that she has been recognised in this way. Our thanks also to Eryl
Powell for initiating the augmentation of the purple plaque.”
Dr Cai Parry-Jones came across Bernice Rubens when he was writing his PhD
thesis ‘The Jews of Wales: A History’ published in 2017 by the University of Wales
Press.
He said: “Her Booker Prize win for The Elected Member is hugely significant. Not
only was she the first woman from Wales to receive this prestigious literary prize, but
she is also the only person from Wales to have been awarded it to date.”
The Welsh Government’s Trefnydd and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt, said: “Bernice
Rubens was one of the most captivating and versatile novelists of the 20th century,
and I am thrilled to see her achievements celebrated today.
“It is only right that her remarkable contribution to literary history is recognised, so
she is remembered for her talent and continues to inspire generations of Welsh
women writers.”
The Welsh Jewish Cultural Centre team celebrate this recognition of an important female Jewish artist, and thanks Cai Parry-Jones for the source material for this news article. We are also grateful to The Guardian for information found in this article.
Source: The Guardian and Cai Parry-Jones
Comments